Confiscating the common good

Small towns and religious politics in the French Revolution

AvEdward Woell

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

Del i serien Studies in Modern French and Francophone History

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Beskrivning

Comprising five microhistories, this book proposes that the French Revolution’s religious politics in small towns weakened democratic society to such an extent that it precluded political democracy. It details two revolutionary dynamics that damaged the civic life of small towns: social polarisation and the loss of local institutions that had been a source of social capital as well as a common good. Detailed narratives about Pont-à-Mousson, Gournay-en-Bray, Vienne, Haguenau and Is-sur-Tille also reveal that contrary to the view upheld by many scholars, small-town religious politics extended far beyond the pivotal Ecclesiastical Oath of 1791. Other developments — the nationalisation of Church property, the dissolution of religious orders, and the elimination of bishoprics, chapters, parishes and collegial churches — also adversely affected the wellbeing of these small urban communities not only in the Revolution but also in the two centuries that followed.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2022-08-02
Mått:138 x 216 x 21 mm
Vikt:535 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Studies in Modern French and Francophone History
Antal sidor:304
Förlag:Manchester University Press
ISBN:9781526159137

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Mer om författaren

Edward J. Woell is Professor of History at Western Illinois University

Recensioner i media

'Two things stand out about this book and justify its inclusion in a series devoted to innovative monographs and edited collections on the history of France and its colonies. The author turns the spotlight on the supposedly ‘quiet year’ of the revolution, starting in November 1789, and takes as his angle of vision the collective life of small towns...The institutions underpinning small-town Catholic piety also captured and expressed a sense of local democracy. This “democratic ethos” would succumb irretrievably when legislators in the Constituent Assembly set about stripping away monasteries, bishoprics, chapters and, in some cases, even parishes (p. 13). It is in this sense that we should understand the book’s title. As Woell notes in an ominous conclusion, dismantling the common good has both a contemporary and a historical resonance.'Peter M Jones, H-France Review